Graduates - A Reason For Hope

A Christian Science perspective

By Susan Mack CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

I remember how wonderful it felt to be graduating from college in 1976. It felt as if anything was possible. But I struggled with some concerns as well: Will anyone want to hire me, and will I be able to pay my bills?

Each year's graduates probably face the same questions. But this year's seniors are graduating at a time when unemployment figures are at record levels.

With such fierce competition for jobs, a new graduate is unlikely to find hope in the view of life as a finite pie that has to be divided up without enough good to go around. But there is another way to look at life: the spiritual view that reveals life as infinite because God is infinite Life.

The Apostle Paul put it this way: "In him God we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). As the ideas, or children, of an infinite God, we each must express some aspect of this infinity. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, summarized: "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," p. 468).

This isn't just a theoretical concept, however. And examples from mathematics may make it a bit more tangible. In math, there's never an end to the number sequence. Each number is vital. If even one number were pulled out, the principle would collapse. This fact helps illustrate how important each of us is to divine Principle, God. In a way, each of us represents the completeness of infinity. No one is reundant, unneeded, extraneous, a burden, or even unemployed, because by virtue of being God's idea, or expression, we represent Mind's infinite self-expression. We're not fighting for a limited amount of good in a finite universe, but are the mutually blessed and blessing ideas of the one infinite God.

So how does infinity relate to getting a job and paying the bills in these times? The Psalmist declared: "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite" (147:5). Accepting this thought takes off our mental limitations and opens us up to new and creative solutions. It gives confidence in the job search and interview process. It brings the joy of knowing that everyone is being guided and cared for, and that we all have a God-given place.

For example, several years ago a college senior I knew was majoring in art and didn't feel she was the most qualified candidate in a competitive job market. As graduation approached, she was praying, asking to follow God's guidance and to know that she had an established place in the divine infinity. At a job fair at her college, she interviewed for a position teaching art at a private school. She was thrilled to get the job, which met all of her needs for income, housing, and community during the next four years.

For those graduating this spring, it's time to celebrate without fear and to graduate into infinite possibilities of good. Each of us has a place in God's plan, which is forever established.